


Still Following

by efficaceous



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), F/M, Fix-It, Kinda compliant?, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 21:57:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3871177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/efficaceous/pseuds/efficaceous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, Age of Ultron gave Clint a family.  Which was sweet. But I'm a die hard C/C shipper. So here's my take on how to make the two worlds mesh. Phil is dead (as far Clint knows and for the purposes of this fic).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still Following

Laura was… she was great. No, she was _perfect_. She was a single mom who put her kids first every minute of every day and Clint would have loved her for that alone, having longed for that kind of maternal love every minute of every day of his own childhood (and adolescence, and some days as an adult even.)

 

She was beautiful. No goofy outfits or trying to enhance or hide any part of her; Laura was beautiful because she never tried to be anyone but herself.

 

Sexy? Heck yeah! She was uninhibited and gentle and giving and fun in bed in a way Clint hadn’t experienced with a woman before, ever.

 

And her kids? Now their kids? Clint felt like he was somewhere between the big brother he had always wanted Barney to be and the father he saw on TV sitcoms, mixed with some weird thing where they actually liked him and his arrows and projects and Pizza Dog. They were good kids.

 

And now Laura was pregnant. Clint had NEVER thought he would make a good dad. Even after Cooper and Lila had accepted him (and he had wrapped his mind around the fact that he was good for them) he still hadn’t considered passing on his white trash carny no-super-powers-but-jumps-off-buildings genetic material. But Laura was.

 

Someone else had been certain too.

 

He remembered, once, talking to Phil, quietly in bed, about getting a surrogate. Clint had wanted a little girl version of Phil, with his clear eyes and quirked smile, But Phil had been adamant. If they went that route, (if), it would be with Clint’s DNA. At first, Clint thought Phil was afraid of passing on his mom’s MS. Phil saw that, saw the uncertainty in his eyes, and clarified.

 

“Clint, you are a honest to god super hero. You grew into a good man, the best man I have ever known, despite years of neglect.”

 

“I’m a better man than Captain America?” Clint wanted to poke holes in Phil’s praises, to dilute their power over his own heart, to remind himself that they weren’t, _couldn’t_ , be true.

 

“Yes, Clint.” Phil sighed. “Cap’s great. He’s a hero. But at some point, without the serum, he simply couldn’t have done the great things he has. He would have been killed. Honorably. While trying to his utmost. But you, with no serum, no magic hammer, no green rage monster or suit of armor, with a goddamn weapon unchanged from when wooly mammoths roamed Europe, you haven’t failed. You haven’t died. And you have never stopped.”

 

Clint considered this.

 

“Wooly mammoths were not hunted with a bow and arrow.” _Deflect. Distract._

 

“I know that Clint, I just… I just think you’re so special and not everyone gets to see it. I feel like YOU don’t see it.”

 

_Damn_. “I don’t.”

 

“Do you trust me?” The first words Phil had ever said to Clint, all those years ago in Munich, repeated now, knowing what the answer would be, what the answer would always be.

 

“You lead, I’ll follow, sir.” The words Clint had engraved on the inside of his dogtags. _On his heart._

 

“Then trust me, you are worth fatherhood. You are worth passing on every good thing and even the annoying mouthy shit. If we ever… if YOU ever get the chance, do this for me. Because the world may not need more heroes, but it needs more Clint Barton’s.”

  
  


So when Laura brought up the idea, hesitantly, about them having a baby together, Clint took a deep breath and agreed. And smiled.

 

Even with Phil gone, he was still leading Clint in the right directions, still giving orders. And Clint was still following.

 

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Hold On Tight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3935788) by [ms_nawilla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ms_nawilla/pseuds/ms_nawilla)




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